Picked out in a beam of light from the spaceship, Tzelek was transfixed. The sequins on his dress shimmered and sparkled. He held the dagger above his head, as motionless as a statue. From the stream of curses flowing from his lips, Max and Lola, who were the only ones close enough to hear, understood that his immobility was involuntary. Also caught in the alien’s headlamps, Lord 6-Dog lay flat on his back on the altar. Max noted that the stagehand had been successful in strapping the skates to his feet.
Down below in the plaza, the audience had completely lost track of the plot, but, assuming that the woman in the green dress was striking a dramatic pose, they applauded enthusiastically.
“Look at the altar,” Max whispered to Lola. “It really is the one from Spain. You can see the scorch marks from the fire at Landa’s palace.”
“Yes,” replied Lola sarcastically. “And if you look even more carefully, you can see that Tzelek is trying to kill Lord 6-Dog on it. We need to help him!” She strained to move but got nowhere. “I’m stuck! What’s going on? It’s like my feet are glued to the floorboards.”
Max found that he couldn’t move either. Only his mouth.
“I think it’s the spaceship,” he said.
As they looked angrily around, they saw that anyone who hadn’t fled the stage was immobilized. Below them, the audience was going wild. It must have looked amazing from down there, Max thought. A human tableau frozen in the beam of an alien spaceship.
He narrowed his eyes and tried to look up. “Cigar-shaped,” he observed. “That’s a classic UFO description.”
“It’s not a cigar. It’s a canoe,” said Lola.
“A canoe?”
“Look at it. The ancient Maya had huge, oceangoing canoes with roofs. That’s exactly what it looks like.”
“A space canoe?”
“Why not? Modern space rockets look like jets, so why wouldn’t an ancient Maya spaceship look like a canoe?”
“Okay. But why would a Maya spaceship land at Cahokia?”
“It’s not real, Hoop! It’s another trick!”
“I’m not so sure about that, Monkey Girl. They’re letting down a ramp.”
“You’ll see. It will be another pathetic attempt to sell merchandise.”
When the ramp was in place, the lights dimmed and the door of the ship slid open. A figure stood in the doorway, backlit from the cabin, and visible only in silhouette.
Twenty thousand people gasped at once.
“It’s him!” yelled Max. “It’s the Birdman!”
“No way!” said Lola scornfully. “It’s just some guy in a costume.”
The audience fell silent—the entire watching world fell silent—as the Birdman figure walked down the ramp. When he reached center stage, he spread his huge feathered wings. The moonlight danced on their silvery plumage, making them glitter and sparkle.
A distorted voice boomed out from the spaceship: “HAIL TO YOU, CHILDREN OF THE STARS.”
Constellations of camera flashes lit up the night.
The voice continued:
“YOUR PLEAS HAVE BEEN HEARD. THE BIRDMAN HAS RETURNED.”
“Hey you there, Birdman!” called Tzelek. “Would you mind turning off the spotlight? You’re blinding me and I’m in the middle of a very important sacrifice here!”
The Birdman turned to see who had spoken.
He pointed a wing at Tzelek and extended a claw. A ray of red light, like a laser beam, shot out and exploded the dagger into pieces.
“Okay,” said Lola. “this is looking real.”
“Birdman, I beg of thee!” gasped Lord 6-Dog. “Use thy magic light to cut these ropes.”
“I’ll cut them,” said Tzelek, “and use them to strange you.”
The Birdman extended a claw and pointed it at Tzelek.
“No!” screamed the evil priest. “No!”
Another beam of red light shot out and Tzelek-in-Lady-Koo’s-body slumped to the ground, holding his/her head.
The Birdman’s shoulders shook as if he was laughing.
“Looks like Tzelek’s been sent back to Xibalba,” whispered Max. “Maybe this Birdman is on our side.”
“Maybe,” agreed Lola. “But I don’t like the way he’s looking at our Jaguar Stones.”
“THE BIRDMAN BRINGS GREETINGS FROM YOUR NEW MASTERS,” announced the voice from the spaceship. “OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW.”
He pointed a claw at each Jaguar Stone in turn, and, one by one, they exploded in a fizzing tangle of wires and batteries.
Max and Lola looked at each other in despair. Despite the fact that a spaceship was hovering over their heads and something had gone very wrong with Lady Koo’s show, they’d still hoped to grab the stones and head back to San Xavier. But now their plan was hopeless.
“We’re doomed,” whispered Max.
“Don’t say that.”
The spotlight moved to shine on them.
“Uh-oh,” said Max. “What’s this?”
“THE NEW AGE HAS BEGUN,” the voice was saying. “STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS OF THE OPENING CEREMONY. AND TO SYMBOLIZE THE JOINING OF OUR WORLDS, THE HERO TWINS ARE NOW INVITED TO BOARD THE SPACE CANOE.”
The Birdman gestured toward the ramp.
“Excuse me?” Lola called to him. “You know we’re not the actual Hero Twins, right?”
“Take me! Take me!” volunteered voices in the audience.
“At least we can move again,” said Lola, running over to the altar. Carefully, she picked up a piece of the dagger’s shattered blade and began to saw at the ropes.
“HERO TWINS FOR IMMEDIATE BOARDING!” commanded the voice.
“We’re not coming with you!” Lola shouted at the Birdman.
Lord 6-Dog had worked himself free of the rest of the ropes and was climbing down. “Who dares to—?” he began, and immediately lost his balance on his roller skates. Before he could pull himself up again, a red light focused on his heart.
The Birdman looked questioningly at Lola.
“Hoop?” she said in a little voice. “I think we have to go with them.”
The Birdman nodded in agreement.
“What, and live on another planet for the rest of our lives? Are you crazy?”
The red light on Lord 6-Dog’s heart grew brighter, and he clutched at his chest in pain. “As long as we’re alive, we can escape,” said Lola. “I’m sure we’ll be back. They said something about opening ceremonies.”
“No.” Max was adamant. “It’s too dangerous.”
The red light flashed. There was a smell of singed monkey fur.
“Stop!” Lola shouted at the Birdman. “We get the message.” She crouched down to Lord 6-Dog. “Are you okay?”
He nodded weakly.
Lola looked at Max. “With or without you, I’m getting on this spaceship. Lord 6-Dog can’t take any more.” She helped the howler to his feet. “Well, this is exciting,” she said, trying to sound brave. “You’re going to be the first Maya king in space.”
“I care not for flying,” grumbled Lord 6-Dog
“Where’s your sense of adventure?” asked Lola, pulling him on his skates toward the ramp.
Max watched them go.
Fay pushed her way through the petrified stagehands. “Here,” she said, putting something into Max’s hands. It was a Dawg Doll in striped pajamas. “Lola wanted it.”
Max looked at the little toy monkey. It had an almost mystical expression on its face. And whether it spoke to him or whether he listened to his heart, he suddenly knew what he had to do.
“Wait for me,” he called. “I’m coming with you.”
To Blue, somewhere in the audience, it was the most remarkable thing he’d ever seen.
A howler monkey wearing blue-striped pajamas and roller skates, his red blanket flying out behind him, was being towed by a jaguar-painted girl with a beard and a red-haired boy dressed in camouflage as they followed the mythical Birdman of Cahokia up the ramp of a shimmering space canoe.
“I have to find Wi-Fi,” he said to Rainbow. “My Facebook friends will never believe this.”